Antique calculators lead to fame for Tustin man

Dec. 20, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Guy Ball is a former collector of antique calculators. His obsession began in 1985 when he picked up his first calculator that was from the 1970s. He collected at swap meets, online and at thrift stores until he had amassed nearly 2,400 of them. Ball recently sold them to make space in his garage (the calculators had taken up half of his two-car garage) and gave up the hobby. He still has 10 calculators, including the first one he bought, and was featured on Tuesday on "Storage Wars" as an expert appraising an old calculator for Darrell Sheets. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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To say Guy Ball of Tustin is a "pocket calculator super-collector" might not exactly scratch the surface of his 30-year obsession. Ball co-wrote the book "The Complete Guide to Pocket Calculators: Prices, History and Models." JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Guy Ball sold off most of his 2,400 calculators earlier this year, but the "super-collector" hung onto a handful, including this Sinclair Executive, circa 1973. "It's an English-made calculator and a really elegant design," Ball explains. "I just love it." JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A trading-card designer once self-published a line of "super-collector" trading cards. One featured Guy Ball and his collection of pocket calculators. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Guy Ball demonstrates how this stylus-driven Addiator calculator from the 1940s works. The stylus is used to manipulate slider mechanisms on the device's face. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Guy Ball of Tustin cradles the first pocket calculator he ever purchased: a Panasaonic 855 he bought in 1985 for about $5. He believes he could sell it today for somewhere between $60 and $80. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Guy Ball is a former collector of antique calculators. His obsession began in 1985 when he picked up his first calculator that was from the 1970s. He collected at swap meets, online and at thrift stores until he had amassed nearly 2,400 of them. Ball recently sold them to make space in his garage (the calculators had taken up half of his two-car garage) and gave up the hobby. He still has 10 calculators, including the first one he bought, and was featured on Tuesday on "Storage Wars" as an expert appraising an old calculator for Darrell Sheets.JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Timeline

1965 to 1967: Texas Instruments develops its first integrated circuits.

1971: The first handheld portable electronic calculator is released.

1972: Hewlett-Packard comes out with a scientific calculator.

1976: LCD screens are used on calculators.

1985: Guy Ball purchases his first 1970s electronic calculator.

1994: Ball is featured, with other collectors, at the Fullerton Museum Center.

2006: Ball stops collecting calculators.

It was 1985 when Guy Ball saw his first old calculator at a Salvation Army.

"It was really cool-looking and had this white plastic sculpted body. The numbers lit up in a pretty blue fluorescent tone. I thought, 'This is pretty cool,'" he said.

That Panasonic launched a more-than-20-year obsession with calculators dating back to the early 1970s. Today's calculators have silver and gray screens, but the early calculators featured blue or red tones.

Though Ball recently sold his collection of 2,400 calculators – about 1,200 were duplicates – he has gained a reputation among collectors as an expert. On Dec. 11 he was featured on "Storage Wars" on the A&E channel.

"It was wonderful on so many different levels," Ball said. "I always get nervous when I do something like that. You just never know how things are going to turn out. I was very happy with the way things came across."

Ball invited Darrell Sheets and his son Brandon, along with the film crew of "Storage Wars," to his home for about two hours in July to film the show that aired this week. The father-son team brought him a mechanical calculator dating to the 1920s for appraisal. They filmed for about 45 minutes, which was broadcast in a couple minutes on the show.

Ball, who was already a fan of "Storage Wars," showed the Sheets how to work the machine. A sticker on the mechanical calculator from a Danish store led him to the date and place where it had been purchased.

"It was pretty cool and a lot of fun," he said. "The guys were nice people. I felt comfortable with them."

Ball watched the episode as it aired from his house in Tustin, with his wife, Linda, and sons Nicholas, 17, and Alexander, 16. Since, he's gotten compliments from friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

"My head is still a couple sizes too big," Ball jokes. "There's a certain notoriety to it."

Ball literally wrote the book on electronic calculators.

He still has about 1,000 copies, stored in his garage. Ball coauthored "Collector's Guide to Pocket Calculators" with collector Bruce Flamm of Riverside, which was published in 1997. The book, which sells on Amazon.com, lists prices for the 1,500 models mentioned in the book.

Part of the draw for Ball is that the calculators were among the first uses of integrated circuits and real electronics. He recalls the 1970s, when the first electronic calculators were available.

"They were new; a lot of money. I remember I couldn't afford them because they were a couple hundred – this was for a basic four-function," Ball said. Eventually a calculator went on sale, but cost him about $90 at half price.

Years later he developed a strong appreciation for the interesting calculators from the early 1970s. It was the style and design that drew him in. Everywhere he traveled he would stop at antique shops, garage sales, swap meets, to look for new models and brands. While in New Jersey for his reunion, he found a man at a swap meet selling a box of about 20 varieties of vintage calculators for $1 each.

"As I'm going through it I'm so excited; like a kid in a candy store," Ball said. "People see me and think I have something exciting and come over, and go, 'Oh, calculators.'"

He bought a suitcase at the swap meet, picked up about 20 of the calculators and brought them back to Orange County.

Ball stopped collecting in 2006, though by then he had 2,400 different models from the early 1970s. Eventually he had collected one of each of the three first electronic calculators made by Canon, Sharp and Busicom – including what he calls the holy grail of electronic calculators, a Busicom 120A, known as the Handy LE 120A. He later sold it for $1,000.

He explains the evolution of the calculator with excitement. When a percentage function entered the market, everyone wanted a calculator. In 1972, Hewlett-Packard released the first scientific calculator. "That went like gangbusters. There was a six-month wait," he said.

But by late 2011 the calculators, filed away, had seen little attention. The calculators were placed in nine five-drawer filing systems, filling a space the size of a Suburban in his two-car garage.

Ball sold his collection except for his 10 favorite calculators, including the original white Panasonic.

The first night without his collection, Ball says he felt a bit depressed. Later, after the storage containers also were taken away, he felt freedom.

"You kind of get captured by your collection, particularly as I was because I was so known in the Internet world for calculators. It becomes part of you," he said. "There was a point it was done. It was time."

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